“Today, the House of Representatives made history with a
majority vote to move the Corporate Transparency Act out of Committee and
towards the House floor. We have campaigned for years to put an end to
anonymously-owned companies used by criminals to operate in secrecy, to launder
dirty money, and, ultimately, to get away with their crimes. Congress is
finally stepping up and tackling this issue head on with a bipartisan bill that
would tell criminals and the corrupt that the US is not open for business.
Together, 33 Democrats and 10 Republicans in the House
Financial Services Committee decided that the US should no longer be a
haven for illicit funds.

Just prior to today’s House Committee vote, Senators Mark Warner
(D-VA), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Doug Jones (D-AL), and Mike Rounds (R-SD)—all
members of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs—also
introduced a draft
bill that proposes a range of reforms to current anti-money
laundering laws in order to make them more effective. That bill includes a
section which mirrors the Corporate Transparency Act and is aimed ending
anonymous companies as well. This shows that there is bipartisan support for
corporate transparency in the Senate, and that leading figures there are
serious about pursuing a solution.

We welcome the efforts of these Senators to draft the ILLICIT
CASH Act and we applaud Representatives Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Pete King
(R-NY) for their enduring leadership on this issue to see the Corporate
Transparency Act passed out of committee. With today’s events, Congress is inching
closer to a landmark achievement in the effort to combat illicit finance and
corruption around the world.”